Manfred Meyer

• When organizing intercultural and interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning (PBL) activities across Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), the organizational and resource implications, along with the associated financial challenges, soon become crucial. Even promising approaches may not take off as a simple ‘return on investment’ view and funding decision may not fully address their various impacts on students, staff, institutions and society. This paper explores the experiences within a distributed interdisciplinary project-based learning program run from 2020 to 2023 and involving more than 150 students from four continents learning 21st century skills by collaborating over one semester to address real-world problems faced by clients in partner countries. While the primary goal of this distributed interdisciplinary and intercultural project-based learning program was to offer students a truly Global Intercultural Project Experience (GIPE), this paper explores its broader impact. We found that the program significantly influenced both the academic and administrative staff at all partner universities. Furthermore, we examine the program's effect on the participating institutions themselves over the four-year period. Our conclusion is that the invaluable benefits of such interdisciplinary project-based learning extend well beyond financial metrics. They include enhanced student learning experiences, strengthened cooperation and mutual learning between academics and administrative staff, improved institutional reputation, and positive societal impact. Thus, we worked hard to convince both our university management and the world's largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and researchers to grant financial support for another 3-year period in 2025 to 2027 during which the GIPE concept will be further developed and a permanent organizational structure shall be established based on an extended network of partner institutions and sponsors around the world.